Quinn & King

12 Convene

Ji Woo and I made it to the panel session just in time. While it wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be, it was still interesting to attend it. Of course, I did get distracted easily and took that time to study the surroundings instead.

Unlike me, most of the people who attended paid attention for most of the time, Ji Woo included. He was probably, by far, the most hyper focused one of them all.

Anyway, as fate would have it, I, of course, did not win the giveaway and neither did Ji Woo. Oh well, better luck next time! I didn't stay upset for too long because right after the panel ended, we were still surrounded by plenty of booths selling art and game-related stuff.

So yeah, in my eagerness, I made my way towards them. It was only when I turned to ask for Ji Woo's opinion did I realise that I had lost him somewhere in the crowd. I ended up buying both keychains in my haste, stuffing them into my pockets before walking around to look for him.

Where the heck could that big guy be...

I went bacj to where I last saw him, and of course, he wasn't there anymore. Why was it so hard to spot him?

I stopped in my tracks, when I thought I saw someone who resembled Ji Woo, causing people to cuss around me. It was then that I became hyper aware of all the humans surrounding and pushing me, touching me. I quickly apologised and walked away to the side of the convention hall, where there was less traffic.

First things first, I needed to calm myself down. Then, I needed to figure out where Ji Woo was.

I checked my phone, just in case he texted or called me. There was nothing. I sighed, my eyes darting around the crowded convention hall. I was dreading joining the crowd.

Sure, I was fine before. But once I had become conscious of the crowd, it would be hard for me to enjoy myself. As it was, I could barely tolerate the school crowd, what more at the convention, where I would be surrounded by strangers. No, thanks.

I dropped Ji Woo a text, telling him to meet me at the exit by 3.30pm. Hopefully, he saw the message before then. I had given him what I thought was enough time for him to do whatever he wanted to do at the convention.

I directed my attention towards the bathroom in the far corner and made my way over, trying to push away all thoughts of the crowd from my mind. It worked. I managed to find my bearings in the bathroom before walking back out.

The trick was to constantly distract myself so I didn't think about my surroundings or my trauma. So I stayed by the sidelines, where there wasn't much crowd.

As I was shuffling around, trying to avoid the throngs of people just in front of me, my back hit someone else. I could tell it was a tall and well-built guy and not some wall. I turned around to quickly apologize.

"So sorry-" I stopped short when I realised that he looked familiar.

Idol boy looked up from where he had been staring, his right hand shaking, causing the ice in the cup he was holding to rattle. It was then that I realized why his eyes looked so pissed.

There was pink smoothie all over the front of his white shirt, some remnants of it still visible in the cup. It was probably because of me that his drink had spilled. But for the life of me, I could not remember his name so I'll just keep calling him Idol boy in my head.

"Yo, what the hell!" He exclaimed. "How you gonna make up for this?"

He had stormed towards me, clutching the front of my shirt before I could even react. He towered slightly over me, as he pulled my shirt towards him. I scowled at him, wrenching my shirt away from his fist.